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CARCHE´SIUM

CARCHE´SIUM (καρχήσιον), according to Callixenus (in Ath.
474f), was a kind of cup, rather long (ἐπίμηκες), narrower in the middle than at either extremity,
and with handles (ἐ̂τα) stretching from the
top to the bottom. Asclepiades (in Ath. 488f）
mentions carchesia among those vessels which
have feet. It was a peculiarly Greek cup (Macr. 5.21init.), and generally of a splendid nature.
Legend tells how Jupiter gave one to Alcmena, and that very cup, we are
informed (Ath. l.c.), used to [p. 1.364]be pointed out to travellers at Lacedaemon. At Babylon Diodorus
(2.7) says there were two carchesia weighing 30 talents; and it is mentioned among the
splendours of a royal court in Alciphr. Ep. 2.3. We never
hear of it as made of clay; but of metal or precious stone, e. g. gold
(Ath. 198c), and with embossed work (V. Fl. 2.655), silver (Ath.
605b), brass (Ovid, Ov. Met.
7.246), sardonyx (vid. infr.). Dennis
(Etruria, i. p. cxvii.), however, and Birch
(Hist. of Ancient Pottery, p. 380) (cf. Krause,
Angeiologie, Taf. iv. fig. 9 a), consider the vase made
of early black ware of Chiusi, in the possession of Sig. Terrosi of Cetona,
to be a carchesium ; and Dennis also regards as a

Carchesium. (Birch and Dennis.)

carchesium the vase with a lid and relieved decorations which is
given in the second illustration of a vase from Chiusi. The lists

Carchesium. (Dennis.)

of donations to the temples in C. I. G. 139, 140,
141, 150, show how very usual it was to dedicate silver carchesia. The passage quoted from Ovid is evidence that it
was used for other substances (e. g. milk), though generally it was used for
wine (carchesiaBacchi,Verg. G. 4.380). They are mentioned by
Athenaeus as being used in the cottabos (667 e). The derivation is
uncertain. Athenaeus (475b) considers it to come
from the same root asκαρχάλεος, and, if so,
it means “rough” with embossed work (cf. Val. Flac. l.c.). Our last woodcut represents the splendid
carchesium known as the “cup of the
Ptolemies,” which formerly belonged to the Abbey of St. Denys,
and now is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. It is of
Oriental sardonyx, with Bacchanalian subjects engraved thereon.

From its likeness to this kind of goblet the name carchesium was applied to (1) the “top” above
the yards, which with the θωράκιον or
“waist-cloth of the top” formed an elevated

Carchesium. (Bibliothèque Nationalc, Paris.)

place for look-out or for signalling (cf. Catull. in Nonius,
15.28, “Lucida cum fulgent summi carchesia mali” ) or for
discharging weapons from in warfare (Ath. 208e).
(2) This top sometimes revolved, and into it was fastened a horizontal beam,
which was used as a crane for loading and unloading the ship (Vitr. 10.5). (3) A block of pulleys at the top,
through which were run the ropes used for hoisting the sail (the Schol. on
Pind. N. 5, 50;
Non. 15.28; Serv. on Aen. 5.77; the Schol. on Lucan 5.418). For full particulars, see NAVIS